This invention relates to metal belt conveyors, and particularly to improved side wings for such conveyors which permit tighter turns.
Flexible metal belt conveyors are used for many purposes in manufacturing and industrial fields, such as the moving of sand and gravel, ores and other raw materials, machine parts being treated or processed, and metal chips generated in machining processes. Such belts typically take the form of plates or aprons which include an elongated flat body with staggered hinge barrels formed along their front and rear edges. The hinge barrels of one apron are interdigited with the hinge barrels of another apron to form a piano-type hinge with a long rod passing through the barrels. Rollers are typically mounted on the projecting ends of the rods outboard of the aprons. Upstanding side wings are usually mounted on the rods between the lateral edges of the aprons and the rollers. The side wings typically link successive rods and overlap each other to form a series of wings. The upstanding side wings function to retain material on the upper conveying surface of the belt. An example of this common form of metal belt conveyor is found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,233,722 issued February 8, 1966 to C. T. Jorgensen.
As illustrated in the aforesaid patent to Jorgensen, past practice has been to provide a diagonal offset in the side wings so that when the successive adjacent side wings are overlapped they provide, in effect, walls at the lateral edges of the conveyor belt, Such diagonal offsets and overlapping create limitations as to the degree of curvature which the conveyor belt can assume. Specifically, the diagonal offset will interfere with the bottom edge of the succeeding side wall if too tight a turn is attempted.
I have found a simple yet effective way to reduce the amount of interference and permit tighter turns by altering the profile of the side wings.